MTN, Africa’s largest cellphone company, said on Thursday it would launch a second network in Iran in August, reaching 31-million subscribers by 2015.
”August is when we are expected to launch. We are hopeful that we will meet that date,” MTN group chief executive officer Phuthuma Nhleko told a news conference.
MTN holds 49% of IranCell with a total investment of $543-million dollars.
Only 11% of Iran’s 69-million people have cellphones, MTN said, adding that it was hoping to expand that reach to 40% of Iranians — or 31-million customers — by 2015.
Under an agreement with the Iranian government, the IranCell network should cover half the country’s area by November this year.
MTN acquired the stake in IranCell after a deal with a Turkish firm, which had initially been awarded a contract in February 2004 to provide cellphone services to some 16-million users over the next 15 years, fell through. — Sapa-AFP